


Spider-Fam

by MagicalComradeMolotovCatgirl



Series: Weapons of Anarchy [2]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25127803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalComradeMolotovCatgirl/pseuds/MagicalComradeMolotovCatgirl
Summary: "With great power..."After the tale of one man's vendetta against the tyrannical system, an uprising is brewing in New York over the murder of Dr. Bill Foster by police officer Herman Schultz. When teenage trans girl Guan Stacie was bitten by a Mutant spider, she's caught up in a battle against the villains whom would see the people continue to suffer in the name of civility.
Relationships: Miles Morales/Gwen Stacy
Series: Weapons of Anarchy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781905
Kudos: 2





	1. Venom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all started with a spider-bite. Again.

#  **Chapter 1** : **Venom**

“Justice for Bill Foster!” the crowd chanted outside the New York City Hall, protesting for the black scientist tasered to death by the police. “The Shocker must pay!”

“The Mayor has ordered you to disperse!” an officer told the protesters with a loud speaker. “Obey the curfew or face the consequences!”

“What’s that, pig?” a black woman in the crowd asked. “Are you fucking threatening us? You gonna taser me to death too if I don’t go home?”

“That’s not what I - ”

“Well, fuck that shit!” a white man said to the general cheer of the crowd. “You know what I think of you lot, you cowardly sons of bitches?”

He threw a glass bottle stuffed with a lit wick at the nearest police vehicle; the bottle shattered and the car caught on fire.

“That’s enough!” the young police man raised his voice, which was tinged with outrage and fear. “Gas them, boys!”

Cans of tear gas hit the ground. While international conventions technically prohibit the use of chemical weapons, and any protesters or insurgents who employ them would definitely be demonized as monsters and hunted down like animals, the governments all over the world had no issues with employing this chemical weapon that could have lingering effects on human body - never mind also being extremely flammable – on the people they claim to protect.

“Brace yourselves!” someone among the protesters shouted and tried to shield their face from the gas that never came; they opened their eyes just in time to see what appeared to be thick threads made of white spider silk hurtling the canisters away from the ground and into the City Hall itself.

“What’s up, fine people of New York?” a young girl in a costume, scarlet with golden lines tracing out webs and the stylized spider on her chest, asked as a black spider the size of a house cat scuttled up her arm toward their destination on her shoulder. “Is New York’s finest giving you grief?”

“It’s Spider-Shen!” a little girl in the crowd said with a squeal, followed by thunderous cheers and claps from the protesters. “They’ve came to save us!”

“Hands where I can see them!” the police aimed their guns at the young woman, whom for all intents and purposes appeared to be armed with nothing but a wolf spider with a face-like pattern on their back. Perhaps they were startled by how freakish the “face” looked, big white eyes and huge red grin.

“Oh noes, small firearms, our one weakness!” Spider-Shen raised her arms over her head in a dramatic pose of resignation, before the spider crawled onto her hand and spit thick threads of silk from their abdomen, which stuck to the side of the guns and allowed Spider-Shen to pull the weapons out of the cops’ hands. “Just kidding! Sorry officers, you are not killing anyone tonight!”

“Hell yeah!” the black woman who originally challenged the cop’s threats called out. “They can’t do nothing to us while we have our friendly neighborhood Spider-Shen here! Let’s show them what’s what!”

With that, the crowd rushed a disarmed police force, straight into the heart of a “democratic” city that refused to listen to its own people.
    
    
    /╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\
    

“You had one job, Officer Parker.” the mountain of a man, all muscle and no fat, said in his deep baritone. “Just the one.”

“I’m sorry, Commissioner Fisk.” the young officer, Peter Parker, replied in a shaking voice. “We didn’t expect - ”

“Excuses,” Commissioner Fisk stood up from his desk and walked toward Officer Parker. “Is unprofessional.”

Peter Parker joined the force out of noble intention, to protect and serve the people after his uncle was killed by a mugger. If the system he worked for wasn’t so corrupted to the core, willing to sacrifice its best to protect its worst, perhaps he would actually get to do that. In a different world, in a different universe, perhaps he would even be a hero, actually saving the lives of the down-trodden instead of being paid to destroy them, even if it meant he would be hunted by enforcers of unjust laws and a media circus eager to please its corporate masters.

Nevertheless, it mattered little what he would or could have done, how he came to work for a monster and became one himself. His choice in this life, on this Earth, had led him here, standing before a man with the strength of a bear and the vileness of a snake.

Fisk snapped Peter’s neck with his bare hands.

“This whole Black Lives Matter fiasco had gone on long enough here in New York; they think the law is dead simply because some maniac blew up the White House.” Fisk told the watching officers as two of them stepped forward to take Peter’s body away. “Well I’m the law and the law is not mocked! Time to show them whose city this actually is. Time to show them not to mess with the Kingpin.”
    
    
    /╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\
    

“Breaking News: Officer Parker, whom was violently attacked by the supervillain Spider-Shen and the Black Lives Matter terrorists, was found dead with his neck snapped.” the anchor recited these words without a trace of irony or shame in her voice, while the title card read: _“Spider-Shen: Menace_ _and Threat to All REAL Americans_ _!”_ and _“Are_ _Antifa and BLM the REAL Fascists? Yes,_ _Yes_ _They Are!_ _”_

“In other news, Conservative senators strongly condemned the cowardliness and weakness displayed by the Mayor of New York, citing his failure in not allowing the army into his city to help control the far-left BLM terrorists. His question about the ulterior motive behind military intervention is obviously just his Liberal bias and his misguided attempt to protect homegrown terrorists in his own backyard.“

“More on Daily Bugle!”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

_A few months earlier…_

“Dr. Yakumo?” Stacie called out as she stepped into her Mother’s spacious laboratory. “It’s Stacie!”

As Stacie expected, the lab was just as messy as Yakumo’s personal study at home. Safety and hygienic standards could not stop a woman’s determination to infect her surroundings with her chaotic lifestyle.

“Hello?” having gotten no response, Stacie ventured deeper into this place of science. “Anyone?”

As Stacie browsed through rows of specimen in her quest to find Yakumo, a shadow the size of a house cat stalked her every move, stood and watched her from the vantage point atop towering lab equipment.

“Hm?” Stacie blinked when she saw one of the cages used to hold life specimen – lovely creatures like venomous snakes and poisonous arthropods – stood open and empty. “Uh, Dr. Yakumo?”

And that was when the shadow struck.

“Kya!?” Stacie covered her mouth when a face suddenly appeared before her, with giant white eyes and a wide red grin; when she realized that it was just a pattern on the abdomen of a giant black spider, the arachnid had already bitten her on the back of her neck before scuttling out of sight again. “Owie…”

“Stacie-chan?” Yakumo Hachiko appeared with her thick round glasses and messy curly hair while her daughter was busy massaging the deep and painful spider bite on her neck. “Oh, you’re here!”

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to have seen a spider around here somewhere, have you? About this big?” the doc used her palms to indicate something the size of a house cat. “It escaped its cage a while back.”

“Well, I -” Stacie wanted to complain about how the damned thing bit her for no good reason, but bit her tongue when she realized she didn’t know what her Mother would do if she knew. “No, I hadn’t.”

“Okay then.” Yakumo nodded, having no reason to doubt her daughter’s answer. “...Oh, you’re here to pick up your estrogen, right?” she rummaged through stacks of pharmaceuticals before she produced a bag of small white pills. “Here you go, sweetheart; gotta take those anti- _boy_ -otics, right?”

“Mom - ” Stacie groaned at the Mom joke, before something occurred to her: “Oh, and the blocker too.”

“Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to be _transparent_ here.” Hachiko chuckled at her own jokes as she handed more pills to Stacie in a bottle. “Tell your Aunt Mei I’d be late for dinner, okay?”

“Thanks, doc.” Stacie smiled as she took the drugs from the good doctor and nodded. “And will do.”

Just before Stacie turned and left the lab, she paused and asked her Mother: “...Why do they hate us?”

As spacey and oblivious as Dr. Yakumo was, it still took her no time to figure out what her daughter’s talking about: this administration had became increasingly transphobic and cruel, putting up numerous legislation that took away the basic human rights of trans people and Mutants, forcing lucky ones like Stacie to turn to homemade medicine of various quality. The unlucky ones were all but forgotten, their deaths brushed off as personal weaknesses instead of what it really is: systematic genocide of a people.

Oh, but the Liberals put up rainbow flags for a month each year, just like they talk about black history for the _shortest_ month each year, so obviously everything is right with the world. _Obviously._

No one really knows who the terrorist was, but many marginalized people and their loved ones secretly thanked Weapon V for blowing up the White House. Hachiko was one of them.

“Oh, honey…” as socially awkward as she was, Yakumo still did her best to comfort her daughter with a hug. “They hate you because they’re selfish and afraid. They’re afraid because they’re arrogant and ignorant, thinking that you’re a new threat to their precious lifestyle, instead of something as old as human consciousness itself. They let their fear control their own destiny, and now they want to control yours so they don’t have to look in the mirror and realized that they’re the only aggressors, not you. That’s all there is to it: selfishness, their need to base their freedom on taking it from other people.”

“Why do we have to pay for their cowardice?” Stacie sobbed quietly into her Mother’s bosom, before she finally regained her composure and wiped tears off her face. “It’s not fair, _okaasan_ ; it’s not fair at all.”

“No, honey, it’s not.” Yakumo echoed, her tone and expression contemplative. “It’s not fair at all.”

And the spider watched it all.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“I’m home!” Stacie announced as she opened the door to the house she shared with her two Mothers and not one, not two, but _four_ siblings. “I swung by _okaasan_ ’s lab to pick up my E; how’s everyone?”

“Stacie, my _imouto_!” Takuya gathered Stacie into a big bear hug. “Do you have my testosterone too?”

“What?” Stacie blinked while she tried to free herself from the Japanese boy’s arms. “Why would I?”

“What, you went to _okaasan_ ’s lab and you forgot about me?” Takuya finally let go of Stacie and sighed dramatically. “I’m deeply hurt by this apathy, _imouto_ ; truly, I am!” but there was no hurt in his voice.

“You didn’t tell me you needed a refill!”

“Well, you didn’t ask if I needed one!”

“ _Namaste_ , Stacie.” Pavitr or Parvati - Parvati, judging by the feminine clothes she was wearing at the moment – greeted the bantering duo by bringing her palms together before her chest. “Do you have it?”

“Of course, _bhagin_ _i_.” Stacie nodded as she reached into her bag and produced a bottle before handing it to Parvati. “There you go.”

“Hey, why do you have her puberty blocker but not my T?” Takuya protested.

“You didn’t ask!” the girls said in unison.

“Where are Cindy and Matt?” Stacie asked.

“Upstairs, Cindy’s room.” Parvati inclined her head in the direction of the stairs. “Matt’s playing fashionista again.”

Indeed, when they got to Cindy’s room, Matt was telling their Korean sister, whom had an impassive expression: “Look at this, Cindy! This dress suits you perfectly!”

“No offense, Matt, but...how the _hell_ would you know?” Stacie asked. “You can’t even see what color it is!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, sis.” Matt’s eyes lit up behind his sunglasses. “I may be blind, but I can tell the color of an object by its relative temperature.” he reached out a hand and touched Takuya’s jacket. “Black.”

“Whoa, seriously!?” Takuya took a step back, stunned. “That’s badass!”

“I’m bullshitting you, of course.” Matt laughed. “I’m not a Mutant or anything; I know what color your cloth is because you only wear biker leather, and they only ever come in one color: black.”

“Get over here, you little devil!” Takuya locked Matt’s neck into his arms affectionately while the girls laughed. Not Cindy, though; she never laughs, or expresses her feelings in any significant way except the occasional texting, and even then it’s most just just an emoticon or two.

“Dinner’s ready!” Aunt Mei called from downstairs. “Come and help me set the table!”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

Later that night…

Stacie woke up in the middle of the night, her body burning all over like she’s having a fever. Did she catch a cold? Maybe next time she should sleep in her bed instead of her secret nest in the attic. She could feel bright stabs of pain spreading out from the spider bite on the back of her neck, going up and down her spine along her blood vessels and nervous system, as if thousands of little spiders were gnawing her from the inside out. Her heart would have skipped a beat if it weren’t beating so fast; was the spider poisonous? Should she have told Yakumo about it instead of pretending like it’s nothing?

“Girl! Here!” someone was talking to her outside the window, and tapping at the glass too. “Open up!”

Stacie forced herself out of the bed and spared a glance at the window as the pain subsided; what she saw made her jump and forgot about the pain entirely.

“Kya!?” Stacie squeaked when she saw the giant white eyes and wide red grin on black fur: it was the spider from the lab, the one that bit her. “What are you doing here!?” she asked, not expecting an answer.

“I came to talk to you!” but she got an answer either way. “Now would you _please_ open the window?”

“Talking spider isn’t real, it can’t hurt you…” Stacie shook her head when she realized an even more surreal detail about her situation: she was sticking to the walls and ceiling of the attic with her hands and feet like a spider. “Yeah, this must be a dream!” she concluded. “But can you hurt this much during a dream…?” though at that point, the pain was already fading, making her wonder if she only _dreamed_ about being in pain.

“Open the _goddamn_ window, young lady!” the spider was practically body-slamming the window at this point.

“Fine, fine!” Stacie grumbled as she jumped down onto the floor and then got to the window in one swift motion unexpected from a science nerd like her, before she went and got the window. “There. Happy?”

“ _Thank you!_ ” the spider said and crawled into the house. “I feel like we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot; allow me to introduce myself: I’m Venom. I’m non-binary and use they/them pronouns.”

“I’m Stacie. Guan Stacie.” Stacie gave Venom her name instinctively, before she blinked and realized: “Annnd I’m introducing myself to a talking spider.”

“Not quite.” Venom said. “I’m communicating with you through your olfactory system; your sense of smell, in other words.”

“What, seriously?”

“No, of course not.” the spider laughed in Stacie’s mind. “I’m a Mutant and I’m communicating with your mind directly through telepathy, which only works on people I’ve bitten and injected with my, well, _venom_ , for lack of a better word. Uh, sorry about that.”

“So I’m, what, your personal translator, is that it?” Stacie crossed her arms and stared down at Venom. “Why me? If you can escape from the lab, you could have picked anyone else.”

“I could.” Venom agreed. “But as you’ve noticed, my bite mutates the recipient further than allowing them to communicate with me. It comes with great powers that must be handled with great responsibilities.”

“And you think I can take responsibilities for them?” Stacie cocked her head to one side like a little bird.

“I think you can take better responsibilities for them than most others, in any event.”

“Why?”

“Because I overheard you talking with the mad scientist who abducted me.” Venom earned a chuckle from Stacie with the mad scientist remark. “And you understand what it’s like to be powerless.”

That last line tugged at Stacie’s heart, and a quiet settled between them. After a while, Stacie broke it:

“Wanna get outta here?”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“Woohoo!” Stacie squealed as she swung through the hot breath of New York city on Venom’s thread, thick and sturdy as the ropes climbers use to scale mountains. “This is _amazing_!”

“You might wanna keep it down a notch.” Venom reminded her as they cut off another thread in her hand and went back to perching on her shoulder. “People are sleeping, after all.”

“Oops, sorry.” Stacie giggled and stuck her tongue out as she took a break by sticking to the side of an office building. “But I can’t help it; this is too much fun!”

There was a time when more was felt than known; when Stacie was a small child, even when she was still in the foster system, the world seemed pregnant with magic: she expected to find a mysterious curator in every corner shop, and each night promises a new adventure. But as she grew older, that sense of wonder was crushed by the obligation of so-called adulthood; she realized that the corner stores were staffed with underpaid people barely making a living, each night is but a moment of reprieve before another day’s wage slavery. Being an orphan just made her learn all of this harder and faster than other people, but eventually everyone realizes it: the world is filled with potential, but only for the privileged people who took from others, not for the people they took from.

But tonight, released from the mundane world that victimized her and her siblings, that sense of wonder came back with the help of a talking spider; she felt like a magical girl and Venom was her familiar.

“Man, what should we do now?” Stacie smiled as she plotted her next adventure. “Maybe we should go to the Stark Tower, see what it’s like to look at the city from - ”

Just then, an unspeakable chill interrupted her train of thought, a primal feeling of being watched by a predatory animal, and she instinctively looked to where the feeling came from: down in a darkened alley, two police men were harassing a black kid from her school.

“Hey, isn’t that…” Stacie frowned and squinted at the small figures on the ground. “...Miles Morales?”

She maneuvered to get closer to the scene, and that’s when she saw one of the cops reaching into his pocket and produced a small packet filled with white powder, before he promptly tossed the packet into Miles’s backpack...and then “found” the damning evidence that he had just planted on the poor boy.

“Holy shit, these cops are dirtier than Takuya’s laundry.” Stacie wanted to help Miles, but she couldn’t just let the police know who she was, or they would come after her family too; she needed some kind of disguise, but there was no time to go home and get the V mask she used during the protests…

“You two!” Stacie settled for a paper bag with two holes bitten out by Venom. “Hold it right there!”

“What the fuck!?” the cop who was planting the drug on Miles blinked when he heard Stacie, then blinked again when he saw her disguise. “What the fuck!?”

“Must be one of them masked vigilante nutjobs.” the other cop reached for his sidearm. “They’re all over the place after that terrorist bombed the White House.”

But his gun was not in the holster. By the time he realized what’s happened, Stacie had already took it from him using one of Venom’s threads.

“What the fuck!?” the first cop continued to panic as Venom crawled onto his legs and chewed at his holster, causing his gun to fall to the ground. “What the fuck!?”

And with that, the true villains that threatened the safety of the people were defeated; disarmed of the state-issued implements of power, they had no choice but to run away like the cowards that they were.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

The next day...

“That was _amazing_!” Miles caught up with Stacie while she was leaving the school for home.

“Hm?” Stacie’s heart skipped a beat when she saw who was talking to her. “Uh, what was?”

“Oh, are we doing this whole secret identity thing?” Miles whispered conspiratorially. “Are we just gonna pretend you didn’t save my ass last night while wearing a paper - ”

Stacie grabbed Miles by the arm and shut them both off inside a utility closet.

“And I wore that paper bag for a _reason_!” she said severely and glared at Miles. “How did you know it was me, anyways? We don’t even know each other all that well.”

“You were wearing that kitten pajama Takuya made for you.” Miles said. “And he just couldn’t shut up about how cute his _imouto_ is while wearing it. He described it in _excruciating_ details. _Repeatedly_.”

“I’m going to murder him.”

“Look, you secret is safe with me, okay?” Mile swore as he took out his phone and showed Stacie a few blurry photo of her in the pajama and paper bag. “There. All gone.” he deleted the photos right before her eyes. “And now, tell me _everything_.” Miles’s eyes lit up when he said it. “What other powers do you have? Where did you get your powers? What was that spider? Did it give you your powers?”

“Whoa, whoa, one question at a time, Spider-Fan!” Stacie threw her hands up helplessly.

“Alright, alright; I’m just excited, is all.” Miles nodded and drew in a deep breath to clam himself. “So did you think about going pro, so to speak? Becoming a superhero?”

“What, like the Flash?”

The Flash, the Silver Lining, the Fastest Person Alive, was a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants and one of the most popular superheroes in America. Throughout the Brotherhood’s turbulent and sometimes even violent history, the Flash stayed true to her principals, always fighting the power and helping the weak, which earned her an eternal spot in popular culture; someone on Stacie’s class was literally named “Flash Thompson” after her.

“Yeah, exactly!” Miles nodded. “Do you like the Flash too?”

“Oh, I love her!” it’s Stacie’s turn to gush: “I have her posters, comics, action figures...everything!” her face was suddenly clouded by a trace of melancholy: “If only Aunt Mei isn’t like the one person in the whole world who hates the Flash…”

“Speaking of your Aunt Mei,” Miles said, “Are you gonna tell her? Or the rest of your family?”

“Hell _no_!” Stacie crossed her arms before her breasts into a big “X”. “If I tell one of them, all of them will know, and if Takuya knows, eventually the _whole world_ will know, and that includes Aunt Mei!”

“So it’d be like…” Miles smiled. “...Our little secret?”

“I suppose so.” Stacie couldn’t help but smile with him.

“Anyways, just in case you want ta get into the superhero biz,” Miles took a sketch book out of his bag. “I took the liberty of drawing up some costumes during classes...”

Miles showed Stacie numerous pencil sketches of superhero costumes, and one in particular caught her eyes: it had big white eyes on the mask like the ones on Venom’s back, and a stylized spider on its chest.

“This one.” Stacie pointed it out to him. “I think it’d look good with red and gold.”

“Yeah, it would.” Miles nodded his agreement. “Say, have you picked out a codename?”

“Hmmm…” Stacie put a finger to her chin as she thought about it. “How about…”


	2. Spider-Shen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stacie really liked ShadowRun: Hong Kong.

#  **Chapter 2: Spider-Shen**

“The court had dismissed all charges against officer Herman Schultz, derided as ‘the Shocker’ by the Black Lives Matter terrorists, due to the utterly unfounded allegations that his taser attacks caused the death of Dr. William ‘Bill’ Foster, a scientist from Pym Industries.” the anchor droned on. “The coroner had determined that Dr. Foster died from heart failure, and it’s impossible to prove with more than 100% certainty that it’s related to the 3 taser attacks against his heart by officer Herman Schultz, whom had received a medal for his 3 weeks of extraordinary service on the police force.”

“Officer Schultz!” and there he was, marching out of the courthouse with a smug smirk on his face, smiling and waving at the cameras as if he was a soldier whom had risked his life for a higher cause, when anyone with brain and heart could see him and his colleagues for who they truly are: murderers for hire. “What do you think of the decision made by the court and the police about your situation?”

“I think that as always, the sacred institutions in this great nation of United States made the right call.” he told the surrounding microphones and raised the medal he had been given for his latest - but without a shadow of a doubt not his last or only - racist murder: “I feel humbled and honored to have received this accommodation for my effort in protecting the fine citizens of New York from black criminals.”

“What do you have to say to the victim’s families?” asked one of the reporters, his credentials showing that he was from one of the smaller news outlet, the only ones still bothering to do fact-checking and maintain professional neutrality, in an age where the entire media circus leans far-right – regardless of the laughably non-existent “left-wing bias” the hypersensitive Conservative crybabies keep accusing them of - with Washington Post little more than an advertisement tool for its richest owners and Daily Bugle dedicating its entire airtime to Fascist propaganda. “About the murder of an innocent man?”

“Well, he was killed by a police officer, so he’s by definition not innocent.” the Shocker answered with a dismissive wave, showing off the miniaturized, ring-mounted taser around his finger; it was originally just a proof of concept from Stark Industry, and despite of his supposedly “genius IQ” Stark claimed he couldn’t _possible_ predict that a covert weapon like this would be used to commit covert murders once he sold the designs to the government. “Innocent men don’t get killed by police officers in the US.”

“You’re so full of shit, you son of a bitch!” the reporter’s microphone suddenly made a clicking sound as if it was a gun; that’s because it actually _was_ a gun, masterfully disguised to look like an innocent microphone. “My name is Walter Foster,” Walter said as he released the safety, “You killed my Uncle Bill,” pulling back the trigger, “Prepare to die!” and let loose multiple shots at the son of a bitch _._

But the bullets hit empty air and then the ground, as suddenly a shadow the size of a person flew by the courthouse and snatched Schultz up in mechanical talons. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Was it -

“Fucking _Mothman_!?” Schultz panicked when he got a good look at the _thing_ that saved him from the bullets, a humanoid being covered in leather with giant metallic wings on the back. “What are you!?”

“You cops truly are a superstitious and cowardly lot.” the “Mothman” told him with a feminine voice, because she wasn’t Mothman at all; the leather that covered her body was an advanced, experimental flight suit, attached to the robotic wings on her back which was keeping them in air, another invention where it’s impossible for the tech “geniuses” who invented them to foresee its abuse by governments and paramilitaries around the world. “Codename’s Vulture. Just hang tight and I’ll get you out of here.”

“Not so fast, Hawkgirl!” Spider-Shen was hot behind their heels, swinging above the crowded streets and between the tall buildings on Venom’s threads; it’s immediately apparent that Vulture had a vast advantage in speed and mobility during this chase. “Mind telling me where you’re taking Shocker?”

“First off, my codename is Vulture; Hawkgirl sounds like a porn actress.” Vulture said, her voice only betraying a little just how annoyed she was. “Also, what I do with him is none of your damn business.”

“And _my_ name is Herman Schultz!” Shocker reminded them. “Can you knock it off with the Shocker - ”

Vulture punched him in the face and knocked _him_ out.

“Look lady, the people of New York demand justice.” Spider-Shen said as she tried to catch Vulture in her webs, but the flying woman dodged Venom’s silk every time. “You gotta give them something!”

“Justice?” Vulture spared a glance at Spider-Shen. “For that mob down there?” she indicated the BLM protesters with a nod. “What justice do you think they could give, except that of a crazed lynch mob?”

“That’s still more justice than pinning a medal to the chest of a murderer and then let him go free.” Spider-Shen said as she finally landed a hit with a thread, dragging Vulture down by one of her wings.

“Listen here girl, you sound like you’re young, so I’m going to give you some free advice:” if Vulture was alarmed at all while she maneuvered to slam Stacie into one of the buildings, her voice didn’t show it. “Nobody cares about justice, not _really_. All those people down there? They only care at all because it’s _their_ blood that’s been shed, and it’s _their_ justice they’re demanding. You’re their hero because you work _for_ them, but the moment you don’t – for whatever reason – they’re going to turn on you as well.”

“And who do _you_ work for, Vulture?” Spider-Shen asked and gave herself a boost by bouncing her legs off the side of a building, which allowed her to catch up with Vulture and jump onto the wings of the flight suit. “What are _you_ fighting for?” she asked as she tried to take Schultz away from the woman.

“The highest bidder.” Vulture said and swirled several times in midair, preventing Stacie from getting her hands on the Shocker. “I’m paid to do a job and I do it.” realizing she would lose altitude before she lose Spider-Shen, Vulture decided to change course. “And at this point, I’m not paid enough for this.”

Vulture opened her talons and dropped Herman Schultz from a height of at least six-floors.

“No!” Stacie screamed as she scrambled to attach herself to the roof of a building, before she tried to save the Shocker by catching him with a thread, and catching him she did: the silk attached itself onto his chest, breaking his fall just before he could hit the ground...and then momentum broke his neck.

“There you have your justice!” Vulture shouted at Stacie, her form shrinking as she put more distance between them. “A quick and clean death; probably more justice than he would get from a lynch mob.”

Stacie leaped down to the ground from the top of the building, kneeling on the concrete as she inspected Schultz’s body; she didn’t need a medical degree to conclude that the angle of his neck was fatal.

“Oh no…” she whispered in panic as her hands hovered above the corpse, but she didn’t know what she wanted to do with it. “Oh God…” tear began to soak the fabric of her mask. “I...I let him die…”

“Stacie!” she didn’t know how long it took until Miles found her with the body; he must have been trying to follow her as soon as Vulture showed up. “Oh my God, is he... _dead_? Are you...are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay.” Stacie shook her head, her voice strained with pain and grief. “Nothing is okay.”

“Hey hey hey, it’ll be okay.” Miles said and held her head in his arms, letting her sob into his shoulder. “I saw what happened. You didn’t kill him. The hawkgirl did. It’s not your fault you can’t save him.”

But Miles wasn’t the only one following her.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“Excellent work, Karen.” J. Jonah Jameson Jr. told the Huntress as he looked over the photos of Miles and Stacie embracing behind the body of Schultz, the boy’s expression notably somber to anyone with more than half an eye, which unfortunately doesn’t include the audience of Daily Bugle. “I can already see the headline: ‘ _BLM terrorists celebrating the murder of_ _yet_ _a_ _nother_ _servant of good Americans!_ ’”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Karen the Huntress said, her smile notably fake to to anyone with more than half an eye. “I also have some recordings of their conversation, the audio quality isn’t that great, but - ”

“Does it contain anything that will help us reveal them as the violent terrorists that we know they are?”

“Well, not as such, but - ”

“Don’t bother me with useless details, then.” Jameson said with a dismissive and impatient wave. “The story had been fact-checked: all the facts checked out in my head. Everything else is irrelevant noise.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Karen could barely kept the sarcasm out of her tone. “Whatever bullshit you air people will swallow it with a grin, since thinking what you told them to is thinking for themselves.”

“Damn straight.” Jameson said and sucked on the expensive Cuban cigar in his hands, something any rich and tasteful American man ought to try at least once. The hypocrisy of condemning everything from a “Communist” regime while enjoying its most luxurious and Capitalist produce is utterly lost on these people. “Do we know who the nigger kid is? Does he know the bug bitch out of the switcheroo?”

“Kid’s name’s Miles Morales.” Karen said as she handed the school files to Jameson. “A bit of a loner as far as I could see. Been getting close to a Chinese girl named Guan Stacie, though. Maybe it’s her?”

“What, a chinky-eyed jap bitch? No way!” Jameson laughed. “If you ask me, this Spider-Shen is some white hippie kid who went to Tibet and learned to do kung fu better than them rice-eaters, and then decided to adopt the name for diversity or some libtard crap like that. Ya know, like that Rand brat? What did he call himself again? It sounded like a sex toy.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” it’s Karen’s turn to get dismissive and impatient as she turned to leave. “Oh, by the way,” she turned back just before she left. “Vulture wants Kingpin to know that she apologizes for killing Schultz, but we would need to charge a higher rate if we were to confront supers directly.”

“No problem,” Jameson said with the same shit-eater grin that his programs paint on people’s faces. “His death shows the people what kind of monsters the BLM terrorists are. Kingpin is very pleased.”

“We live to please.” Karen said in a flat voice. “For a price, that is.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“Spider-Shen?” Miles caught Stacie hanging upside-down on the side of a building like a spider on the wall, in full costume while she read the newspaper’s coverage of the _‘_ _BLM terrorists celebrating the murder of a model servant of good Americans!_ _’_ story. “Are you doing okay? I’ve been looking for you.”

“ _BLM terrorists celebrating the murder of a model servant of good Americans!_ _”_ wasn’t the only story in the papers, of course; other choice stories included _“BLM Is a Zionist Conspiracy to Replace the US Government With a Marxist Dictatorship”_ and _“It Isn’t Unproven that Spider-Shen Isn't Unaffiliated with Muslim Fundamentalists”_ – now try to wrap your head around that last one!

“Sorry I’ve been scarce.” Spider-Shen tossed the newspaper into the trash bin where it belonged. “I’m not doing so well, honestly.” she said as she jumped onto the ground to be with Miles. “I know that I didn’t save Shocker, and I probably should have, but…” her voice was guilty, tinged with growing anger. “How can they just make shit up like this? The protesters have nothing to do with it! _You_ have nothing to do with it! And I didn’t even kill him, Vulture did! There’s a difference between failure and malice!”

“They don’t give a fuck.” Miles spat with contempt. “Anything to get more clicks and sell more papers.”

“It’s just…” Stacie sighed and hugged Miles. “This isn’t how I imagined being a superhero would be like.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“For talking you into this superhero bullshit in the first place.” Mile peeled himself away from Stacie to look her in the eyes. “Maybe you did the right thing, keeping your distance. We should stop seeing each other for a while, just until this whole thing blows over. To protect your secret identity. Your family.”

“You know what?” Stacie lifted her mask just enough for Miles to see the smile on her face. “Let them talk.”

Then they kissed, as if nothing could fall.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

_TFW no GF._

That was the name of a documentary someone made to show people just how miserable it’s like to be a cishet white Conservative man in the US, how unfair it is that they could never get laid simply because they call everyone retards and touch women without consent, while them niggers could get entire states riled up just by getting shot dead a couple times. Like that fucking nigger Miles; how did a libtard like him land a GF before Harry did? Yeah sure, Stacie’s family was peak snowflake, with two Moms and a buncha siblings she wasn’t related to by blood, but she’s also really fucking cute, like a RL anime girl.

The only film that understood him was _Joker (20_ _2_ _0_ _)_. It perfectly captured what it feels like to be a man oppressed by a radical left America that wouldn’t give him a GF until he would stop using slurs against niggers, japs, faggots, trannies, and so many other snowflakes he didn’t even know the names of. God he loved that film. He put his unique spin on the character; he painted Joker’s face onto one of those V masks when he went to rape and murder the director’s family. He thought Joker would appreciate the irony, how the man was ruined by the biggest fan of his greatest creation. He laughed thinking about it.

But the joke was lost on the far-left media and police. They missed the reference entirely. Called him the Goblin. Where did that come from? Does he look like a canon fodder for 1st-level adventurers to grind on? Does he look like he only cost 1 red mana and would only ever be included in a fun deck ‘cause he has Haste? Fucking Goblin. Whatever, man. If they want him to be a fucking Goblin, then he would be _their_ fucking Goblin. The degenerates already hated him anyways. He would show them. Oh, he would show them all! He would claim his rightful place as the apex predator among the sheeple!

Putting on his handmade Goblin mask, Harry Osborn went to the school with a semiautomatic rifle.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“Did you see last night’s _The Flash_?” Stacie asked Miles between classes. “I can’t believe Helena was the Reverse Flash!” she imitated the character's voice: _“It was me, Berry Ellen! It was me all along!_

“Really? I thought it’s pretty obvious that Dr. Wells is a villain, what with her basically being a mad scientist and everything.” Miles laughed at Stacie’s bad imitation. “Okay, now _that_ is funny. And cute.”

“You’re cute.” Stacie giggled and gave Miles a gentle peck on the cheek, but suddenly a chill went up her spine, same as the night they first met, when the cops were harassing him. “ _Get down!_ ”

Stacie pushed Miles down to the floor just in time to dodge the hail of bullets that swept across the classroom; the rest of the students weren’t so fortunate. A handful of them died on the spot, while a dozen or so received various degrees of injuries; the death toll would double if no help came soon.

“Don’t be scared, Stacie-chan! The Goblin is here to save you!” Harry called out and laughed hysterically as he came into the classroom wearing his Goblin mask, with a rifle in his hands and rows of ammo around his body. “You’ll be safe once I've killed this BLM terrorist!”

“What the fuck is _wrong_ with you, Harry!?” Stacie screamed as she scrambled to open the bag she used to smuggle Venom into the school. “You just fucking _murdered_ all those people! Your own classmates!”

“Weapon V murdered lots of people too!” the Goblin pointed out, believing that all violence is equal like all good Liberals: they would look at racist cops murdering black people for lulz and black people fighting back to protect their loved ones and decide that BLM protesters are the real Fascists because breaking windows is against the laws and scares white people. “So did Magneto, and JFK, and Obama; hell, cops and soldiers kill people _all the damn time_! What’s the difference? Why can’t _I_ kill people?”

“The difference,” Spider-Shen said as she put on the mask, hoping no one was conscious enough to remember what she was wearing. “Is that some of them didn’t target _innocent kids_!”

She tried to take the rifle from  the Goblin with a thread, but he was holding onto it with both hands instead of one, so Venom had to climb over and bite  Harry on the arm to make him let go.

“Ow!” Harry cried out like the spoiled brat that he was, trying to slap Venom off him and gave Stacie just the opening to take the rifle away from him. “ _No!_ ”

“It’s over, Osborn!” Stacie told him as she unloaded the ammo from the rifle and tossed it aside. “Give up before anyone else get - ” but she froze mid-sentence when she saw what was in his hands. 

“Do you like my Pumpkin Bomb, Spider-Girl?” Harry asked holding a sphere the size of a tangerine, which glowed with a soft orange light. Stacie didn’t know what it was, but it looked very, _very_ explosive. “I made it myself! Well, actually I got it from Dad, but I brought it here myself so I piratically -” 

But before he could  do anything with the “Pumpkin Bomb” or even finish his  villainous  monologue, someone hit the incel on the back of the head with a baseball bat.  _Repeatedly._ Miles kept going until the Goblin finally went down.

“The Goblin? Seriously?” Miles spat on Harry’s limp body. “More like Goblincel amirite?”

The school cops, of course, was nowhere to be seen, having long since fled to get back up from their meaner and more well-equipped colleagues from the precinct. Miles dropped the bat while Stacie tore off her mask.

“You have to lay low for a while, before the cops come.” Stacie said urgently as she took locked fingers with Miles. “They won’t care if you saved everyone here. They’d assume you’re the shooter.”

“Girl, I’ve been black a hell lot longer than you’ve been a superhero, I think I know the drill.” Miles said lightly, but his voice trembled a little as he kissed her: “I’ll see you when I see you, yeah?”

“Not if I see you first.” Stacie smiled weakly as she let him go.

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

“My name is Karen Page. I’m a freelance reporter with the Daily Bugle.” the Huntress told Harry as she went into the interrogation room. “The cops are interrogating the boy who stopped you as we speak.” 

“What do you want from me, bitch?” Harry spat. “Wait, where are the cops? Shouldn’t they talk to me first? I’ve seen it on cop shows; actually, speaking of cops shows, I want a lawyer. My Dad would -”

“There will be no official interrogation for you, you crazy _jerk_.” Karen said as she produced a hunting knife from her handbag and pinned Osborn’s hand onto the table with it. He screamed in pain and fear, a privileged and oversensitive cishet white man knowing _true_ fear for the first time in his life. “All the cameras and recordings are off. The cops have gone to get their hourly donuts, and they won’t be back until we’re finished here.”

“Crazy _whore_!” Harry whined like the fragile broflake that he was. “Do you know who my Dad is? He’s -”

“My order,” Karen said with cold satisfaction in her voice. “Came directly from Kingpin.”

“ _What!?_ ” Harry screamed again and then his mouth hung agape in shock. “But...he wouldn’t…”

“Oh, he would. He _did_.” Karen said with a wolfish grin. “If you’re not useful. So make yourself useful.”

“Okay, okay.” Osborn rubbed his face with his good hand, his skin cold with sweat. “What do you want to know?”

“Spider-Shen.” Karen said. “Tell me who she is.”

“What makes you think I’d know?” Harry asked. “Hell, what made you think she was even _there_?”

“Because there’s no way a kid with a baseball bat can stop a kid with a rifle; that’s why cops keep going into black neighborhoods to take their guns while doing jackshit about white supremacists flaunting theirs.” she said as she pulled a thick, white thread out of her handbag. “Also, we found this at the scene.”

“Okay, so she _was_ there.” Osborn shrugged. “But that still doesn’t mean - ”

“This isn’t fucking _Law & Order_, kid.” Karen growled as he grabbed Osborn by the hair and smashed his face into the table; he came away with a broken and bloody nose. “Try _Outlaw & Disorder_. The pigs, they might be chickenshit enough to give you a wide berth just because you’re the Mayor's son; hell, they might even give you a pat on the head for being roughed up by a black kid. Me? I’m just a professional woman being paid to do a job, and the only thing that would stop me from doing it is if someone makes me a better offer, which you’re incapable of.”

“So I want you to think very carefully before another word leaves your stupid mouth.” Karen the Huntress pulled his head up with one hand and pointed the knife at his eye with another hand. “I know Spider-Shen was there. I know she’s a student, that’s the only way she could be there so fast. Hell, I even know you probably have a silly crush on her, which is why a murderous piece of shit like you is still trying to play the white knight and protect her out of some misguided sense of chivalry.”

“You have three seconds before this knife go through your eye and into your brain.” the Huntress told Osborn. “In three, two, one…”

“Stacie!” Harry finally gave up the name of his crush, the one he’s willing to kill random innocent people for but ultimately wasn’t willing to sacrifice his precious cishet white priviledge for. “Her name’s Stacie! She’s dating that nigger Miles! Please! Tell Kingpin - ”

“Thank you, Mr. Goblin. Here’s a message from Kingpin:” Karen drove the knife through Harry’s eye and into his brain. “ _Your incompetence disturbs me. You have outlived your usefulness._ ”


	3. The Flash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the hell is the Flash doing here?

#  **Chapter 3: The Flash**

“ _It was me_ _ **again**_ _, Berry Ellen!_ _”_ Dr. Helena Wells was saying on the TV screen. _“Were you expecting someone else?”_

“Man, this show is bullshit!” Pavitr pointed an accusing finger at the TV. “Berry ran all the way to a different universe, and the big bad is Wells _again_? Can’t they just give her a fucking break for once?”

“It’s still better than most shows theses days.” Stacie said, only _a little_ defensive. “Golden Age of TV, my ass. Half the shows are just Islamophobic propaganda written by white supremacist assholes.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, _bhagin_ _i_!” Pavitr said. “When white men vomit up the racist bullshit they’ve been swallowing, it becomes art through intestine alchemy!”

“If it’s such bullshit,” Aunt Mei said as she turned off the TV. “Then you should go do your homework instead of watching it. There’s no hero in real life, and even if there was, the Flash isn’t one of them.”

“Suit me fine.” Pavitr shrugged. “I should prepare for the archery club practice tomorrow anyways.”

After watching her brother going up the stairs, Stacie – the only person in this house who stuck with the show after the  Flash  fought the exact same villain not once, not twice, but  _three times_ – asked Aunt Mei:

“Why do you hate the Flash so much?” she frowned. “The person, I mean. Not the drag of a show.”

“She gets too much credit.” Aunt Mei said in a matter-of-fact tone. “After literally running around for years, she made less real progress than Weapon V did in a few months. She made the mistake of putting out fires as they arise instead of going after the root of the evils like Weapon V did. She had been a fool.”

“You talk like you know her,” Stacie said. “Personally.”

“Me? Friends with the Flash?” Mei laughed, but there was no humor in her voice. “Absolutely not. Just some observation from a woman who grew too old long before her time, is all.”

“You said there’s no hero in real life,” Stacie pressed on after a moment of hesitation, her heart hammering in her chest: “What about...Spider-Shen?”

“A wide-eyed bleeding heart in way over her head.” Aunt Mei said simply. “It’s only a matter of time before she gets herself into more trouble than she can deal with.”

“Well, at least she’s doing something more than sitting around!” Stacie said, angry despite herself. “With great power comes great responsibilities. What kind of person would she be, if she just sits by and watch the world burn with all that power she has?”

Aunt Mei fell silent. Stacie stormed off without waiting for an answer, sulking all the way back to the room she shared with her siblings.

“She would be a wise woman.” Mei whispered as her wife came home and apologized for being late again and kissed her neck. “Much wiser than I ever was.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

Stacie hated gym classes before she got her powers. She had always been more of a science nerd than an athlete; as a result, she bonded with Dr. Yakumo more than any of her siblings  did . Did  the influence  of the doctor cause her fascination in science? Or did her scientific mind get her closer to Yakumo in the first place? It’s more or less a chicken and egg question, bottom line is she  _loathed_ gym classes.

A fter she got her powers? Well, she knew better than to suddenly dominate the field with her newfound prowess; it would be  way too  risky ,  and not  just  because it might blow her secret identity : if people were to find out she’s trans, they would just attribute her athleticism to her “being a guy”, and the right-wing moral guardians would bring out the guillotine faster than the SJWs they whine about all the time.

But right now, the same physical actions that used to be taxing for Stacie mean absolutely nothing to her. Her P.E. grades were still crap, but instead of being the result of her trying her best and barely keeping up, now she’s just waltzing through a  charade to protect her identity, and it’s so easy for her she could be thinking about  homework or fanfics or whatever she want while feigning incompetence.

The one thing that didn’t change, though, was swimming classes. While there are swimwear designed specifically for trans people, it’s simply a risk she couldn’t afford. So she would just happen to have her period or come down with something in every swimming classes, and due to her being a good student otherwise and respect for Yakumo - a famous alumni - the gym teacher turns a blind eye on it.

As a result, Stacie is always sitting around watching people hate on the one sport she actually liked.

“I’m bored!” she told Venom telepathically, having just finished the copy of _Ananasi Boys_ she had downloaded. She would have bought it, in dead tree form even, but unfortunately all of the writer’s books were banned by the Conservatives because they thought he’s a gay man (he’s not). “Nothing interesting ever happens!”

“Famous last words.” Venom told her. “Don’t tempt Destiny like that, Stacie. She might seem relatively nice compared to her siblings, but she can be a real hellhound sometimes.”

“Shouldn’t it be ‘tempting _fate_ ’?” Stacie blinked at the curious choice of words. “You speak as if Destiny is a person.”

“Well…” Venom trailed off, but before she could interrogate them further, Stacie suddenly stood up and went toward the direction of: “Miles!”

Despite a full dozen of surviving students and teaching staff swearing up and down that Harry Osborn was the shooter and Miles was just helping Spider-Shen protecting them, the cops still saw it fit to hold the black kid for as long as possible as soon as they picked him up from his home, and grilled him in all the ways they could get away with before finally letting him go. Miles was just glad that he didn’t get thrown into holding with some Nazi fuck.

“Stacie!” he beamed when he saw his girlfriend. “Man, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!”

But before the two lovebirds could have their long overdue  embrace ,  someone stepped between them. Stacie’s more startled by the fact that she’s startled by the person than she’s startled by the person; ever since the horror show with the Goblin, she had honed her “Spider-Sense” with the help of Venom, to the point that her prescience about danger s is borderline supernatural and she’s hardly ever surprised.  You’d think campus security would have noticed someone in weird costume since that Goblin fiasco, but in all fairness Sandman  _literally_ showed up out of nowhere, as if  they materialized out of thin air.

“Can I help you...?” Stacie asked the person, their face hidden under a gas mask, as they reached into the pocket of their blood red leather apron and retrieved a pouch full of...yellow beach sand? “...Sandman?”

Sandman blew a grain of sand at Stacie’s face, and she fell unconscious in their arms.

“Hey!” Miles growled and stepped up to the Sandman. “What did you do to her, you fucking creep!?”

Sandman pushed Miles into the pool, and then left with Stacie  slung over their shoulder .

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“They got her!” was the first thing Miles blurted out when Mei went to get the door. “They got Stacie!”

“What?” Mei blinked in confusion. “Who?”

“The cops! The villains! What’s the difference?” Miles was almost having a panic attack. “Some creep in a gas mask just drugged Stacie and abducted her!”

“ _What?_ _”_ Mei couldn’t help but raised her voice. “...And why would they want to do that to my daughter, Miles?”

“Well, uh…” Miles averted her gaze.

“Miles?” Mei demanded, gently but firmly.

“Because...because Stacie is Spider-Shen!” Miles shut his eyes instead of meeting Mei’s. “She’s been at it for weeks! With the help from her little friend here!” he raised Venom, whom was in his arms.

“Oh my God.” Mei covered her mouth with a hand. “I was right. She got in way over her head. And she’s _my_ little girl.” she pointed a finger at Venom and said sternly: “I’ll have a word with Hachiko about you once this is over.”, to which the spider flailed their four forelimbs in acknowledgment.

After a moment of quiet contemplation and internal struggle, she set her jaw as she made up her mind and told Miles: “Wait here.”

When Mei came back out, she was in full costume: a full-body jumpsuit of blue and silver, with the insignia of a single bolt of lightning on her chest. Her face was covered by a pair of heavy goggles.

“Wait, you - ” Miles blinked in surprise. “ _You’re_ the Flash?”

“Yes.” the Flash said simply as she started walking.

“Um, not trying to tell a superhero how to superhero-ing here, but…” Miles ventured. “Since your power is super speed, wouldn’t it be faster if you run ahead and save Stacie as soon as possible?”

“I can’t.” Mei said. “Using my super speed causes accelerated metabolism. Apart from requiring a lot of food to sustain, it also means I physically age sooner. I can’t save Stacie if I die from my powers.”

“Man, that’s rough.” Miles sighed. “So...subway?”

“I have a better idea.” the Flash said as she showed Miles their ride: Takuya’s salvaged motorcycle.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

Sandman dropped Stacie onto a surgical bed without a word, before they reached out an open palm to demand the return of what’s rightfully theirs, the payment promised for their service in this matter.

“I don’t have it. Yet.” Dr. Reed Richards said. Sensing that they might have been lied to, Sandman pulled a knife out of a pocket; the edge of the blade was red with heat. Richards threw his hands up in a placating gesture before continuing: “Kingpin has it. He promised to let me study it before returning it to you, but you can always try and get it directly from him if you’re so impatient.”

Satisfied with the good doctor’s answer, Sandman put the knife back in their pocket and  disappeared .

“What a creep.” Richards spat before he went to undress a teenage girl for his human experiment, completely failing to appreciate the irony of his own hypocrisy. “Now, what’s _your_ secret...?”

Richards  had always been jealous of  women in science, they got it  _so_ easy. All they have to do is twice as much work for half of the pay and none of the recognition, all the while being attacked by “leftists” who claim they care about workers and abhor misogyny but mercilessly beat down on  anyone in STEM because all scientists are  New Atheeists and all coders are techbros to these “Communists” and “Anarchists”. Abused by their colleagues, tokenized by Liberals, abandoned by the left ists : truly an envious position!

S till, they have achieved much: Dr. Walters with her Super Soldier Serum, Dr. Isley who went on to be the leader of the Inhumans, and Dr. van Dyne who made strides in Project Goliath before the confusion surrounding Dr. Foster’s death allowed that snake Pym to steal the credit from both of them, to name a few. But none bring s out the green-eyed monster like Dr. Yakumo  Hachiko –  Reed’s college sweetheart whom went on to become the leading expert in transgenic biology, the same field Richards specializes in. Not so long ago she even wrestled a Mutant arachnid away from him for the sake of animal rights or something; Reed wondered if this girl’s powers have anything to do with that. His curiosity in Stacie is purely academic and had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she’s  Yakumo’ s daughter.  _Really._

This girl was to be his big break. If he could crack the genetic basis of her Mutation, he would be able to create an entire army of soldiers or cops with her powers. Unlike what the leftists would believe, he _did_ think about if he should as much as whether he could, and it all came down to this: neither matters because if he doesn’t he’d lose his grant and perhaps even his job, then the higher education his parents worked to death to give him would go down the drain. If only he can get some of that bribe money the corps give out for fabricating evidences of climate change, or the Communists would show him some worker solidarity. Every scientist is just one rejected research grant away from becoming a supervillain.

“Well, this is…” Reed blinked in surprise when he finally fully undressed Stacie, and it only took him a moment to figure out what’s going on with her. “…Unexpected.”

“My heart goes out to you, young lady; truly, it does.” Richards said, as much to the unconscious Stacie as it was to himself. “I know a little bit of what you must be going through; growing up as a Mutant is tough.” but it didn’t stop him from reaching out with an elongated arm to grab a sampling syringe. “But growing up trans is harder. It’s hard enough to understand why people hate those Mutants whom barely have powers; it’s harder still for people to comprehend why anyone would hate trans people when they have no power at all.” he turned Stacie on her back and placed the syringe on her spine. “So they assume the hate and oppression aren’t real, and rationalize it from there. Religion, ideology...it doesn’t matter what their excuses are.” he started to stab the syringe into her bone marrow. “At least I’m honest with you and myself. I don’t pretend to be any more or less than who I really am: just another man.”

“A man who is about to die,” a tired and jaded voice came from behind him, where there wasn’t anyone just seconds before. “If he doesn’t remove his filthy hands from my precious little girl at once.”

Richards dropped the syringe and turned around, and his heart leapt into his mouth when he saw whom was there: the Flash, the Silver Lining, the Fastest Person Alive, the right-hand woman of Magneto.

“That’s a lot of bravado,” Reed said as he reached his hands toward Mei, arms stretching to impossible lengths. “For someone long thought dead, buried in the same mass grave as her magnetic master.” but he was trembling, knowing that he was completely outmatched before an experienced combatant. “Then again, Magneto came back from the dead, so I suppose it’s no surprise that you did as well.”

“That’s a funny power you have there.” The Flash said without moving or even raising her voice while Reed’s arms surrounded her like thick tentacles. “Like an octopus. They should call you Dr. Octopus.”

“And they would call you the Fastest Person to Have Died,” Richards raised his voice out of fear and adrenaline, as his arm-tentacles wrapped tightly around her body. “Once I dissected your corpse!”

“Oh, sweetheart…” Mei sighed as every molecule inside her body began to vibrate with unimaginable speed, allowing her to phase through solid matter...such as Reed’s flesh and bones. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.” her tone was almost pitying as she reached out a vibrating hand toward the good doctor’s head. “I’m going to make you watch as I take your internal organs out of your body.”

Richards didn’t try to back away; he knew he couldn’t outrun her if she meant to pursue him, and she did. When he looked at her, he no longer saw a woman cladded in silver and blue; he saw a shadow of creation,  millions and millions of stars exploding in a burning and dying cosmos...and her name was Death.

But suddenly, Mei’s legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor. The vibration of the molecules in her body stopped; in fact,  _every_ motion of her body stopped. Suspecting a trick, Richards slowly and carefully walked toward  her and checked her pulse and breathing: weak and shallow, alive but barely.

“...Ha!” Reed couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh. “Hahaha…” he laughed as tension went out of his body along with the adrenaline, his arms and legs bending and folding in uncomfortable angles.

“Not bad for the first battle of Dr. Octopus, eh?” he chuckled hysterically. “Well, time to get back to - ”

His voice trailed off as he felt a sting at the base of his skull; he turned around and saw Stacie, naked but for the syringe in her hands, which contained powerful tranquilizer meant for animals. “Oh shit.”

Then he too collapsed onto the ground like a heap of worn-out towels, just in time for Miles to come in.

“Stacie, are you - ” Miles began, but his voice went out when he saw Stacie’s naked body. “ _The fuck?_ ”

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

As it turned out, Aunt Mei had foreseen her eventual collapse and told Miles exactly who to call and what to say. A nondescript van arrived at the Baxter Building  carrying people wearing the purple-on-red version of hammer and sickle on their armbands: symbol of the Brotherhood, the Flash’s former comrades. They discreetly applied first aid to Mei while changing her into civilian clothing, before they loaded her into the van and took her to a hospital  affiliated with them, sparing her from uncomfortable and likely loaded questions from the police. They told Stacie and Miles to go home and wait.

The two spent most of the w alk in uncomfortable silence. When they finally got within a few blocks from Stacie’s place, she finally decided to rip the band-aid off and broke the silence: “Well?”

“Well what?” Miles said, avoiding her eyes. In fact he wouldn’t look at her at all. 

“Something on your mind?” Stacie pressed on, obviously hurting. “Just spit it out.”

“Oh, nothing big.” Miles said with forced nonchalance. “Just thought you’d have told me you’re trans.”

“Why?” Stacie asked, still trying to remain as calm as possible. “How does it matter to you anyways?”

As a trans girl, Stacie’s used to not express negative emotion in any way except crying, lest transphobes would use it as proof that she’s “actually a guy”, because in their “logic” anger is an essentially male emotion that women _never_ have, and the only way a girl can use to express their pain is through crying. Such misogyny. Much transphobia. Very Feminist. 

“You know I’m totally cool with trans people and everything, right?” Miles said, “I just can’t believe that you trust me enough to make your costume, but _still_ not enough to tell me that you’re trans!”

“Trust has _nothing_ to do with it!” Stacie cried as tears began to swell up in her eyes. “Do you just tell _everything_ about yourself to _every_ girl you’ve _ever_ dated? Is that how these things work for you?”

“Well I’ve never dated a girl before so - ” Miles realized how lame that sounded and bit his tongue. “I’m not asking you to tell me everything; but since we’re dating don’t you think I deserve to know this bit?”

“How so?” Stacie asked as she wiped tears away from her eyes. “I thought you dated me because you think I’m cute and funny and smart and a superhero, not just because you want to get into my pants.”

“ _Of course_ I dated you for those reasons too!” Miles said. “But I’m just a guy here; obviously I also want ta get naked with you eventually. Surely you get that! So why you gotta lay that trap on me?”

“Lay that - ” Stacie blinked and finally lose her temper, and her rage was cold and sharp and horrible. “...You know what? You’re right. I didn’t trust you enough. And you’ve just proved it’s the right call.”

“Stacie, I - ” Miles reached out to try holding onto Stacie before she stormed off, but his hand flinched at the last second as he set his jaw. “Whatever, man. Stacie probably isn’t even your real name.”

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

“Something on your mind?” Vulture asked as she kissed her lover on the head. “Just spit it out, love.”

“This has gone too far, Carol.” Karen shook her head in Carol’s bosom. “It has gone too fucking far.”

“That’s not for us to decide, honey.” Carol held Karen by her chin. “We’re paid to do a job, that’s all.”

“We were hired to break up the BLM movement.” Karen pointed out. “Not to ruin teenagers’ lives.”

“Big words,” Carol said with a thin smile. “For someone who just killed a high-schooler for Kingpin.”

“That murderous loser had it coming and you know it.” Karen spat. “Don’t change the subject, Carol.”

“Look, this _will_ break up the movement.” Carol threw her hands up. “So, mission accomplished.”

“And those two kids are just...what? Collateral damage?” Karen sat up in the bed so she could look her girlfriend in the eyes. “Like the Arab children bombed by drones just to get to one suspected Jihadist?”

“I don’t support that any more than you do and you know it.” it’s Carol’s turn to raise her voice and point fingers. “I didn’t sign up for that anymore than I signed up for all the sexual harassment.”

“What _did_ you sign up for, then?” Karen asked. “What made you join the air force in the first place?”

“That’s irrelevant now.” Carol shook her head. “I got kicked out for blowing the whistle, remember?”

“And I was kicked out of Washington Post for asking one too many pointed question at their biggest investor, that bald bastard Xavier.” Karen gritted her teeth at the memory. “So we both got burned for trying to do the right thing. That doesn’t mean we have to start doing the exact opposite, Carol.”

“Look, the point is that we’re here now.” Carol turned her back on Karen to hide her face from her lover. “And this is what our lives had became.” 

“Carol, I’ve loved you before you enlisted, I’ve stuck with you after you got discharged, and nothing will ever stop me from loving you.” Karen said as she got out of bed. “But when I became a journalist, I wanted to expose the corruption of those in power, not to ruin innocent lives to _keep_ assholes in power. I’ve always tried to support you as best I could, but...this has gone too far, Carol.“

“This has gone too fucking far.”

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

It all went to hell.

Daily Bugle got hold of the footage showing the argument between Miles and Stacie from Karen the Huntress. Through some choice editing, sensationalized headlines, and the general game of Internet telephone, suddenly Stacie is a “white-passing racist bitch” to the left and “insincere black ally” to the Liberals. She can’t go to school now that she’s been outed against her will. Girls wouldn’t let her use the girl’s bathroom since she’s “actually a guy”, and the boys leer or snort at her when she uses the boy’s room. She had the words “tranny faggot” painted over her desk and locker. Even her family is getting heat for it, with her siblings also getting picked on and Dr. Yakumo coming under scrutiny.

But that’s not even the worst of it. The truth is, Stacie expected all of the above. She always knew they would happen if she’s outed to the school. What she  _didn’t_ expect was its impact on the movement. For people who claim to want justice and equality, they sure do turn on each other faster than  they ever rise against their oppressors. Some cishet black people attacked white trans people during a protest. White trans people demanded the cishets to acknowledge that trans lives also matter. The protesters refused, saying it’d d ilute their message as much as “All Lives Matter”,  s o the white queers  renounced them .

“Listen here girl, you sound like you’re young, so I’m going to give you some free advice:” Vulture’s voice echoed in a corner of Stacie’s mind, her expression hidden beneath the heavy goggles. “Nobody cares about justice, not _really_. All those people down there? They only care at all because it’s _their_ blood that’s been shed, and it’s _their_ justice they’re demanding. You’re their hero because you work _for_ them, but the moment you don’t – for whatever reason – they’re going to turn on you as well.”

The world hates her. Not because of who she is or what she does, but because of _what_ she is. She’s not black, so she might as well be a privileged white woman. She’s not a cis girl, so she might as well be a cross-dressing boy. White people think she’s part of the “overpopulation problem”, while black people believe she doesn’t suffer from racism. Cis people think she’s a deluded pervert, while non-trans queers couldn’t understand how hard it is to grow up trans, prisoner in her own skin. No one gets what it’s like to be a trans person of color: oppressed by the powerful and abandoned by other marginalized people.

“I...I can’t do this...Aunt Mei…” she hugged her legs in a fetal position as she cried in a corner of Mei’s hospital room. She held out her left arm; the scars are faint and barely visible. It wasn’t always like this between her and her Moms; she’s their first child to come out as trans, and Mei especially spent a lot of effort trying to convince her she won’t be able to deal with all the hate in the world. But what choice did she have? She could either die as a trans girl buried in her best dress after finally being herself for however short a time...or she could be buried as another sissy boy, another victim, another statistics.

“I can’t do this...anymore…”


	4. Spider-Fam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It rhymes with Spider-Ham.

# Chapter 4: Spider-Fam

Things hadn’t been great for Miles, either.

Nothing too big. Unlike Stacie, Miles had always kept to himself, and people were happy to give him a wide berth. But lately, Miles had noticed that the berth had _widened_ : instead of not caring where he sat so long as he doesn’t get in the way, they actively avoided being around him; instead of not prioritizing him when picking teams, they actively resisted having him on the team. Certainly, there are some really transphobic kids in their school that’s giving Stacie a lot of grief, but she was still liked by most people, and while those people are not gonna give him any grieve, they are done with him for the time being.

Takuya, however, was _not_ done with him.

“We need to talk.” Takuya demanded. “ _Now_.”

“Okay.” Takuya’s tone left little room for argument, so Miles nodded and followed him. Once they’re in the relatively secluded part of the school, behind the old oak tree, Miles asked: “What do you - ”

Takuya punched Miles in the face.

“ _What the fuck!?_ ” Miles groaned and tried to punch back, but apart from being a biker Takuya was also a fitness enthusiast, and was considerably stronger than the artistic Miles. “The _hell_ ’s that for, man?”

“What’s that for, you little piece of shit?” Takuya growled and grabbed Miles by the collar. “My sister, that’s what! I told you if you ever break her heart, I will break every bone in your body, didn’t I?”

“But she lied first!” Miles struggled in Takuya’s vice-like grip. “She should have -”

“I’m trans too.” Takuya said suddenly.

“ _What?_ ”

“And Pavitr isn’t actually non-binary. They’re actually gender-fluid, and goes by Parvati half the time. But they simplified it for you stupid cishets.” Takuya spat. “They had also very seriously considered murdering you with an errant arrow during archery practice, but Matt had been able to talk them down by telling them that the resulting legal troubles wouldn’t be worth their time and energy... _for now_.”

“...Look, I’m sorry, okay?” Miles sighed and deflated like a balloon. “I knew I said a lot of things that hurt Stacie, and everything went to shit because Daily Bugle caught it, but...I was just in shock, okay?”

“Save your excuses and apologies for someone who needs it.” Takuya put Miles down and walked away. “I’m not who you need to apologize and explain yourself to. Be a grown-up and fix your own mess.”

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

S tacie hadn’t left Aunt Mei’s hospital room for days, except to go to the restrooms. Apart from Mei’s nurses and doctor, most people here don’t know her personally and wouldn’t be able to identify  her  as the girl in the video, so no one gives her grief about using the lady’s room.  Her siblings bring her food and estrogen  when they come to visit ; she still takes estrogen regularly - the only anti-depressant that ever worked for her - but she hardly  eat anything no matter how much  anyone push ed her.  S he thought about dying, again; she would have to go back to cutting, since if she jumped off the roof, she would probably just cling to the side of the building instinctively or something. Venom projects aggressively happy  thoughts into her head when she’s like this, images of a people living in harmony with the land, technology, and each other, with no need for money or countries, their skins a million different shades of color, some even blue or green. She didn’t know if they were past memories or imagined future from Venom; she would have asked, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care either way. Not anymore.

“I’m not hungry, Cindy.” Stacie said as the door opened, more gently than she was with anyone else, since she knew how hard it was for Cindy to express caring. “I’ll stay with Aunt Mei. Go home now.”

“Oh, your retarded sister went home already.” the visitor said in his sinister baritone. “Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything to her. She isn’t as much a threat to the American way of life as the rest of you.”

“Wilson Fisk.” Stacie stood up to face the police commissioner. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Once, there was a great man with a grand vision.” Fisk continued, as if Stacie wasn’t there, and not just because he considered her subhuman either; there was something wrong about his demeanor, as if he wasn’t all there, and his eyes were glassed over. “A vision of an America united in both thoughts and actions, as one people under God and the flag, the most powerful and virtuous nation in the world.”

“During the chaos caused by the Antifa terrorist Weapon V, I had the privilege of becoming part of his vision.” as Fisk got closer, Stacie could see a curious contraption on his back, a backpack with a pair of  tubes extending from it and going straight into his arms. “I was drafted into his elite unit, with the sole purpose of banishing un-Americans like commies, hajis, faggots, and Antifa from this sacred land.”

“He was killed in action before I could join him in DC, a brave man raining death and destruction upon the muties of the Brotherhood, before he died gloriously and heroically on his feet.” the tubes began to fill with some kind of chemical as Fisk pulled a skull mask over his head. “I may be the last Banisher, but I’m the first of the Sentry Six, and we shall be the new watchmen for the American dream.”

S tacie’s Spider-Sense kicked in and allowed her to put herself between Banisher and Aunt Mei before he had a chance to hurt the unconscious woman, but doing so mean t giving Fisk an opening to land a punch on her chest, and he was stronger than any human beings  or even Mutants have any right to be. 

“A shot of Super Soldier Serum made Rogers a superman.” Banisher told Stacie as he rushed forward and leveraged his bulk to shove her toward the wall, and then he broke the concrete and sent both of them hurtling down to the ground from the third floor. “And I have more where that comes from.”

“Stacie!” Miles called out and arrived just in time to see Stacie fall, with Venom nestling in his arms.

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

“I wonder where did Spider-Shen go?” a Native American man asked. “Haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Meh, probably just another white kid triggered because some trannies got roughed up a little.” a black woman snorted. “Serve ‘em right. Fucking white men pretending to be women for shits and giggles.”

“Hey, that’s a really shitty thing to say.” the indigenous man frowned. “A black trans woman threw the first brick that started the first Pride, as a riot. You can’t just erase their identities and history like that.”

“Don’t you go whitemansplaning shit to me!” the black woman sassed. “No one is more oppressed than black women, anyone who says otherwise is a misogynist and white supremacist who’s erasing me!”

“White - ” the Native man blinked, incredulous. “Are you fucking blind, woman? Do I look white to you? Am I not standing here with you? You don’t get to decide who’s oppressed and who isn’t!”

“What did you say, you white-passing – ” but the black woman never finished her sentence, since a cop gently tapped her on the shoulder...and sent an electrical shock through her body, stopping her heart. The leftists say that police never learn from their mistakes; they’re fatally mistaken. The cops _did_ learn from Schultz’s mistake, which is why they upped the voltage of the stun weapon and handed them out to _every_ police officer on the scene. But since they’re attacking “terrorists” who broke a few windows, using weapons that are just _potentially_ lethal instead of running over peaceful protesters with tanks that are _definitely_ lethal, this is _not_ a massacre to Liberals, just like how camps that kill with malnutrition and poor hygiene are definitely _not_ concentration camps, so long as they don’t have gas chambers.

“You imbeciles. You fucking morons.” Karen the Huntress cursed from her sniper’s nest, the vantage point on top of the tallest building in the proximity. “You abandoned a good person who can help you, because she doesn’t fit into your narrow and self-righteous definition of a hero. I hope you’re happy.” 

T hen she fired into the crowd.

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

S tacie was falling.

“Black Lives Matter terrorists are part of a larger Islamic ploy to replace the US government with a Anarcho-Stalinist monarchy!” Banisher was screaming incomprehensibly; it’s always amazing how Americans would believe in bullshit as ridiculous as what he was sprouting. “It ends now, with you!”

Falling had became a non-issue for her ever since she got her powers. Even if she somehow missed the chance to stick to a wall, she would more than definitely land on her feet. She would still be hurt, badly if it’s from  g reat height; but she had also became a lot tougher than she looks, so a  mere three-story fall shouldn’t  be fatal . That is, if a juiced-up  wrestler wasn’t trying to ensure that she land s headfirst, and  even if the fall didn’t kill her, being crushed b eneath more than 200 pounds of  solid  muscle  sure  would.

“You people just don’t fucking get it, do you?” Stacie shouted right back at him. “There’s no terrorist, no politics, nothing of the kind behind Black Lives Matter or Rent Strike! It’s just people finally had enough of being treated like shit for absolutely no reason! The only way to stop them is to do better!”

S he struggled against Banisher’s arms and hands, gigantic compare to hers, and it was as if she’s once again a  normal girl, with nothing special to help her against someone twice or trice her size. She should have asked Matt to give her some martial arts lessons;  his Mother was a MMA fighter who taught Matt a bunch of cool moves before his asshole of a Father tried to murder him for coming out; his Mom died protecting him, but not before the fucker beat Matt up so bad he lost his vision. Poor Vanessa Murdock.

So Stacie did what any normal girl would do in her shoes: she bit Fisk’s nose through the skull mask.

“You little - !” Banisher growled and instinctively let go of Stacie to nurse his broken nose, and with a kick she dislodged herself from between his arms. Good news: Stacie is not longer going to be crushed by a mountain of muscle. Bad news: she’s still falling headfirst, and there was no time for her to break the fall or change her position. She didn’t believe in God or an afterlife, but she wasn’t afraid of dying. She’s always ready to die doing the right thing. The whole world wants her to die for nothing, after all.

“I’ll see you in hell, asshole.” she told Fisk with a grin, closed her eyes, and get ready to meet her fate.

B ut Death never arrived, and her body never met the ground. When she gingerly opened her eyes, she was confronted with a mask much like her own: the same design modeled after the “face” on Venom’s abdomen, except th e color scheme is red webs on black instead of gold web s on red. He also avoided the mistake Stacie made with Shocker, having the advantage of being on the ground when she fell: he made a web out of spider silk to make sure her body is even, so he can capture her  into a bridal carry.

“Hey, stranger.” the boy in spider suit said in his usual happy-go-lucky tone. “Name’s Spider-Man.”

“...Miles?” Stacie blinked when she realized who Spider-Man must be, and she loved him so much at that moment she could marry him right there. But then she remembered all the hurtful things they said to each other just a little while back, and a cloud of sadness loomed over her face. “Miles, I - ”

“I’m sorry.” Miles blurted out before she could say anything else. “For everything. I was in shock and treated you like crap. You did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve any of it. You’re cute and funny and smart and deserve love and respect. I don’t know if you can ever forgive me, Stacie, but I’m sorry.”

“Miles…!” tears of joy swelled up in Stacie’s eyes, and she lifted his mask to kiss him. “Cutie.”

“No u.” Miles grinned and pulled his mask back down while Venom climbed onto his shoulder.

“No us.” Stacie pulled Miles in close so their foreheads touched, with Venom between their chests.

“Together.” they said in unison and turned to face the brute calling himself Banisher...but he was gone.

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

I t was definitely  _not_ a massacre. 

Sure, the dishonorably discharged air force lieutenant Carol Danvers, codename Vulture, was grabbing people with giant metal talons and dropping them into trucks heading to camps filled with undesirables.

But  i t was definitely  _not_ a massacre. 

Sure, Karen the Huntress was reluctantly shooting people in the head s wearing her purple kevler armor and face mask, because  Kingpin hired her and Vulture to put down the Black Lives Matter protesters .

But the great US of A does _not_ commit massacre.

Sure, Dr. Reed “Octopus” Richards was slamming people left and right with his elongated arms while laughing manically under his goggles, appreciating just how absurd and hypocritical the situation was.

But anything the US of A does  _cannot_ be massacre.

Sure, the one who walks around in a gas mask and carries multiple knives on their person was putting people to sleep with sand so the cops can then electrocute them with new and improved stun weapons.

But if the US of A decides to kill entire people, it’s because they deserve to die,  so it’s  _not_ a massacre.

The fact that they have an entire law enforcement unit  named  “Electro” – short for  _electro_ cution – is in no way indicative of what they intend to do to the people, just like when the late President told women of color born in the US to go back to war zones they’ve never been to in their entire lives,  _surely_ he was just joking –  _again_ – and was not being a racist motherfucker in any way, shape, or form.

_Praise liberty, the freedom to obey!_

“Gods above,” the Native American man gasped, wild-eyed, as he saw the police murdered the black woman in front of him, the first of many victims. “Somebody help us.”

“Nobody is coming to help you.” Banisher said as he arrived on the scene, obviously severely injured, but all the Super Soldier Serum in his system not only helped him to power through the pain and heal faster, it also allowed him to grab the man by neck and ankle and then broke the poor guy’s back with his knee. “Nobody can survive that fall.”

And above it all, a man watched the carnage with satisfaction from the shadows. He wore the same Goblin mask as Harry Osborn, but he was taller, and on top of his head he also wore a golden crown.

“This is disgusting.” Karen spat as she picked off another protester with her sniper rifle. “This might be _slightly_ more palatable if these idiots can just get off their moral high horses and actually put up a - ”

But suddenly something hit her shoulder and caused her to lose her aim. She instinctively rolled toward better cover and tried to figure out who attacked her and how. When she saw the arrow on the ground, with a thick strand of spider silk attached to its tail, she blinked.

“What the…?”

Another arrow grazed her face,  also attached to a strand of silk ; she hazard ed a look at the direction it came from, and saw another  person cladded in purple, with black webs all over  their clothes and a mask similar to Spider-Shen’s. In their hands was a composite bow, and they faded into nothingness as they put another arrow to the string.

“Active camouflage…?”

The ability to turn invisible by blending into the surrounding like a chameleon had long since left the realm of comic books, but such a  feat is usually a Mutant  power or experimental technology. Now that Spider-Shen is off the board,  Karen was not made aware of anyone who could possibly possess either.

“Alright kid, if that’s how you want to play it.” Karen muttered as she took out a semiautomatic from her bag and showered the other building with a hail of bullets, but the next arrow wasn’t attached to a thread; instead, it exploded and covered her face with spider silk, temporarily blinding her. “Fucking hell!”

“...Come out now, little spider.” Karen called out as she pulled a hunting knife out of a thigh pouch - the same one she used to kill Harry Osborn – and carefully scrubbed the silk from his face mask. She knew her opponent was there with her, on the same roof, having made their way here somehow while she was temporarily blinded. She knew it from her hunter’s instinct, which was really a collection of insights from non-visual cues instead of any supernatural phenomena. “Let’s tango.”

“I prefer hide and seek, myself.” Pavitr - who had climbed over from the other building on the silk threads attached to his arrows - said as he appeared behind Karen and hit the back of her head with his composite bow. “ _Surprise!_ You can call me Spider-Yogi.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“So how did you…?” Stacie asked Miles as they swung through the night sky together. Venom stuck with Stacie, while Miles had some kind of web-shooter gadget attached to the wrists of his costume.

“Well, for a starter, Takuya punched me in the face.” Miles said nonchalantly.

“He did _what!?_ ”

“No no, I deserved it.” Miles shook his head. “But it got me to do a lot of soul searching. Self-reflection. I felt bad about what I did, so I went to your place, and Parvati tried to shoot me - ”

“She _what!?_ ”

“Well she didn’t go through with it so...” Miles shrugged. “Then I’m finally in the house, and Matt tried to beat me with his cane, but he missed because he’s blind - ”

“ _W_ _hat!?_ ”

“ _Anyways,_ ” Miles tried to get back on track. “I apologized and tried to tell them about everything, and then it turned out Cindy could kinda sorta communicate with Venom through body language, so _-_ ”

“Oh for the love of _Nyame_.” Venom cut in. “I bit him on the neck so I could tell him ‘LOVE HAS NO BORDERS, NATIONALITIES, OR GENDERS! _DO IT!_ ’”

“…” Stacie was speechless.

“They did that, yap.” Miles nodded. “So we went to Dr. Yakumo, and she had these shooters that can be used with Venom’s silk, and the rest is recent history.”

“...Wait. Does that mean - ” Stacie began, paused when she saw something, and then pointed to the side of the building where Huntress and Spider-Yogi battled on the roof. “Wait a sec, is that - ”

“Hold your position, Huntress.” Stacie saw Vulture fly toward Karen’s direction as soon as she was informed of the new Spider-Person’s existence. “I’m coming right at – _what the fuck?_ ”

Her wide eyes blinked beneath the goggles as  s he saw another person in spider  suit , this one pale green with gray webs, made of plastic plating instead of clothing fabric, similar to protective gears for bikers. And  he  _was_ a biker, riding a salvaged motorcycle with the same color  scheme as his costume.  None of  it would surprise a jaded mercenary like Carol Danvers;  t he question wasn’t  _who_ he was, but  _where_ . 

He was riding his bike on the vertical surface of the building as if it’s an ordinary, horizontal road, and scaling the height and heading toward the roof alongside Vulture. After closer inspection, Carol saw that he left traces of thin threads wherever his bike was, apparently using the spider silk as a powerful adhesive.

“Oi, bald eagle! I’m Spider-Kamen!” Takuya called out to Vulture when she realized that she had made the deadly mistake of flying too close to him, and he leapt off his motorcycle to deliver a powerful kick to her chest, sending her into a downward spiral. “And _t_ _his_ is what you get for messing with my cutest _imo_ _u_ _to_ , _kusotare_!”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“ _My entire family_ _!?_ ” Stacie drew in a breath as they finally landed on the ground.

“ _Actually_ , not all - ” Miles began, paused, and then nodded: “ _Yes_ , all of them!”

“ _Why_ _!?_ ”

“Look, it was a spur of the moment thing.” Venom said. “Don’t blame the kid, it’s not his fault.”

“I _know_ it’s not his fault!” Stacie grumbled as she picked Venom up by two hind legs. “I’m blaming _you_!” 

“I regret nothing.” Venom said with mock defiance, and the three of them laughed...until they saw Dr. Octopus.

Dr. Octopus had someone ensnared between their arm-tentacles, another Spider-Person, this one w ears black with white webs and had a cute witch hat attached to their head. Richards seemed as nervous and fidgety as he was when he abducted Stacie, but that didn’t stop him from strangling whoever was in their grasp.

“Cindy!” Miles called out as they all rushed to free her, and saw a curious thing: there were a dozen or so very thin threads – _much_ thinner than Venom’s – between Cindy’s and Reed’s heads, and while she was having trouble breathing, the arm-tentacles around her was loosening while Dr. Octopus had an increasingly guilty and horrified expression. Eventually, he simply let go and fell to the ground.

“Oh my God, what have I _done_?” Richards cried as he cradled his face in his hands, kneeling before Stacie. “I’m so, _so_ sorry. I know you will never forgive me, but I’m sorry. _God_ , what have I done?”

“...What have _you_ done, Cindy?” Stacie asked, feeling a sour taste in her mouth. Usually she’d love a good revenge, but she was unconscious for most of her stay with Richards, and getting to punch the smug smirk off someone’s face and seeing someone literally grovel before her for forgiveness feel very, _very_ different.

C indy reached out a hand toward Stacie, and the same thin threads that connected her to Dr. Octopus appeared. Stacie didn’t fight it. Once they were also connected in the same way, suddenly her quiet sister spoke in Stacie’s mind, in a surprisingly sunny and cheery tone: “Please sis, call me Spider-Witch while we’re in the field! What’s the point of having codenames if we never use them amirit e ? Anyways I didn’t really  _do_ anything, I just sent him my feelings about what he did to you to him!”

“You send your - ” Stacie blinked, surprised for so many different reasons, but she knew her priorities. “...I never knew you were _this_ kind of character, Cindy. I mean, Spider-Witch.”

“How so? Because I never speak?” Spider-Witch laughed in their shared headspace, and her voice was childish and bell-like and beautiful. “I just find talking awkward and boring and annoying and all.”

“So, the gang’s all here.” Matt said as he entered the stage with a back flip, while Takuya arrived with Pavitr on the back seat. “Not exactly what I was thinking when I proposed a new family activity, but this sure beats the hell out of watching that stupid _The Flash_ show.” his costume is red with black webs, with a pair of tiny demon’s horns on his head.

S andman.

They suddenly appeared behind Matt and Stacie, who were standing close to each other at that moment, and before Stacie knew what was happening Matt was already grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her aside, saving both of them from the grain of sand that was bl own in their direction.

“Thanks for the save.” Stacie said as she regained her composure. “...Wait. You can Spider-Sense them?”

“Of course.” Matt nodded and said in a matter-of-fact tone. “...Can’t _you_?”

“Nope.” Stacie shook her head. “That’s how they got me the first time.”

“I can’t Spider-Sense this creep, either.” Miles said, and everyone except Matt nodded in agreement. Cindy reached out a hand and sent out dozens more silken threads, tying all of their minds together into a spider-web of thoughts and emotions, so they could all see the world as if they were looking at it with Matt’s Spider-Sense.

“Oh my God.” someone said into the Spider-Web, and at that point it didn’t really matter who it was. “It’s _spectacular_.”

Everything was on fire. Everything in the world was not seen through merely visible light, but as fiery auras with colors and intensity depended upon numerous variables from temperature and distance to probability and momentum. Christians, such as Vanessa Murdock, might fear it as it fits their description of the inferno; but even if it _is_ indeed Hell, the flames have a beauty all on their own. Like most people in East Asia, neither Mei nor Yakumo were particularly religious, so they didn’t force their own spirituality down their children’s throats like so many Americans across the political spectrum. And so, the Spider-Fam could appreciate the sheer wonder of the scene before them, unmarred by religious preconceptions.

Sandman’s motions were laid bare before the family of Spider-People in the Network. Every intention sends ripples through the bright halos of the world they saw, an entire _second_ before Sandman could commit to an action. No matter how much he assaulted them with his sands, knifes, or punches, it was always dodged in the last minute. Finally, Spider-Witch sneaked up behind the blood red figure. “Let’s see who lies behind the mask, shall we?” 

No  one .

As soon as Cindy took the gas mask off Sandman, the leather apron and work gloves crumbled to the ground, scattering knives and sands in their wake. There was nothing beneath the gas mask and the leather apron. There was no one there under all that crimson and blood red. They disappeared as suddenly and unexpectedly as they appeared, leaving nothing but questions and mystery in their wake.

“Whoa.” Miles blinked. “That’s creepy as hell.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

With most of the big  bads out of the way, the Spider-Family began to clean up the street of the filth that were electrocuting people left, right, and center. The police,  a  superstitious and cowardly lot, quickly broke formation and scattered like frightened rats, as soon as they saw  that their Sentr y Six could no longer protect them from the people’s wrath. They were, after all, merely bullies playing at being fighters: they have neither the will nor the training to actually hold themselves in a fair fight or fully utilize the military  equipment given to them.

“Just one more to go.” Spider-Shen said as she knocked out a cop with a flying kick, which earned her a thumbs-up from Spider-Kamen. “Now we only have to deal with - ”

“Do you think you have won, insects?” Basniher growled as he grabbed a black man by his neck and used the poor man’s body as an improvised throwing weapon against the Spider-Fam, but Spider-Witch was able to catch the victim with her web. “Not when I’m still standing, you un-American sons of - ”

“... _You_.” Matt froze mid-fight with a cop when he saw the man in the skull mask, and Spider-Man had to knock the pig out with his Spider-Sting to protect him. “Wilson _motherfucking_ Fisk.”

“That sissy voice…” Commissioner Fisk frowned under the skull mask. “...Matty boy?”

“My name,” Matt growled as he rushed toward Fisk and hit the bear of a man on the head with his nunchaku. “Is _Spider-Devil_ , you piece of shit!”

“Spider-Devil?” Wilson laughed as he tried to grab Matt’s neck, but was dodged at the last moment. “Boy, I wish you had the Devil in you; then maybe you won’t turn out to be such a fucking pussy!”

“ _You killed my Mom!_ ” Spider-Devil shouted as he showered Banisher’s enormous form with a flurry of blows. “You killed your own fucking _wife_ , you heartless asshole!”

“It was _your_ fault, you blind son of a whore. No son of mine can be a faggot.” Fisk growled as he tried to grab Matt again, only to create an opening for Spider-Devil to get behind him. “I was only trying to teach you a lesson. She wouldn’t have died if she didn’t get in the way.”

“Yeah, I _a_ _m_ blind, thanks to your stupid _fucking_ lesson.” Spider-Devil clenched his teeth in fury as he wrapped the spider silk that connected the two pieces of his nunchaku around Banisher’s neck. “And now I get to teach _you_ a lesson.”

Matt pulled the nunchaku apart, and the thread tightened around Wilson’s neck. The commissioner tried to break it off with his super-human strength, but Venom’s reinforced silk at this thickness was stronger than any other material known to science. Fisk began to choke as Spider-Devil dragged his head down and hit it to the ground again, again, and again.

“Matt - ” Spider-Yogi reached out a hand toward Spider-Devil, but Cindy grabbed the hand and shook her head. They could all see Matt’s anger and hatred in the Spider-Web, hot and bright and brilliant, as he fixed the injustice that the laws not only failed to punish, but actively helped to protect and encourage.

“ _What!?_ ” Matt growled at the rest of his family. “Are you going to give me some stupid Jedi speech about not letting my anger get the upper hand? Some religious moralist trash talk about not letting the Devil work through me? Spare me the _fucking_ lecture! Easy for people to vomit that _bullshit_ , when they are not the ones whose Mom was murdered by a goddamn homophobic _swine_!”

The Spider-Fam fell silent. After a moment of somber contemplation, they came to a consensus:

“ _Kill the motherfucker!_ ” they shouted in unison as they joined the fray; Stacie punched Fisk in the face, Cindy projected Matt’s pain into Fisk’s mind, Miles stung the commissioner with his Spider-Sting, Takuya kicking the pig in the groin, and Pavitr put an arrow to his bow and told Matt: “If you would prefer to keep your hands clean, all you have to do is say the word.”

“ _Wha -_ ” surprised by his family’s utter and _unrelenting_ support, Matt actually paused in his trek. “Maybe I should - “

Sensing the  sudden presence of a gun, the Spider-People leaped out of the way. Someone put a round into Fisk’s brain, and then a second, and a third. It was Karen the Huntress.

“You kids are far too young to play judge, jury, and executioners.” the Huntress said as she put a few more bullets into Banisher’s chest for good measure, to make sure he’s dead. “Leave that to professional adults.”

“Shoulda remembered to zip-tie her.” Pavitr muttered. “Welp I guess it’s a good thing I forgot.”

“But I thought you’re on _his_ side?” Takuya scratched his head, puzzled. 

“I’m on the side of whoever hired me.” Karen said with a thin smile. “And now that he’s dead, he can no longer hire me.”

“Man,” Matt told Karen in a swooned voice. “I’d _so_ ask you out if I wasn’t gay.”

“Maybe if you’re ten years older, kid.” the Huntress said and tossed away the sidearm she stole from a cop.

“So…” Stacie said gingerly. “Does that mean…?”

“You won this round, spidey.” Vulture said as she touched down beside the Huntress in a three-point landing. “We’re now officially not paid enough for this crap.”

“Oh, thank God.” Miles sighed in relief.

“The Huntress, Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Banisher…” Cindy counted out their triumphs on one hand. “..Hold on. Stacie, didn’t you say they call themselves the Sentry _Six_?”

“Your lack of competence disturbs me.” the crowned man in Goblin mask said as he stepped out of the shadow, holding something that pulsed with orange light in his hand, the same sphere Harry had when he shoot up the school. 

“Is that - ” Matt blinked when he saw what’s in the man’s hand. “...What the Devil _is_ that?”

“Oh shit oh fuck.” Karen drew in a breath. “An arc reactor.”

The arc reactor is one of the few things “genius inventor” Tony Stark had _actually_ invented, as opposed to simply acquired and rebranded with the vast wealth he inherited from his Father. While it was meant to be a novel and clean power source for a new age of technology and progress, much like everything else Stark had invented himself, it eventually overloads and explodes, _unfailingly_. Despite the 197 IQ that he would _never_ shut the fuck up about, Stark claimed that he couldn’t _possibly_ foresee how it would be turned into a weapon once he licensed the patents to governments around the globe. _A_ _gain_.

“You have outlived your usefulness.”

The man in Goblin mask dropped the bomb. The Spider-Fam felt a great gust of wind around them, heard Karen’s heartbroken and heartbreaking cry, and saw Vulture flying away with the arc reactor in her talons.

“You’re truly some fine young people. I wish I had met you sooner.” Carol told the Spider-People just before she flew out of the earshot. “At the risk of sounding trite, I think the kids will save us yet.”

Then the arc reactor exploded, creating a brilliant ball of  fire in the sky.


	5. Weapon V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Are you Weapon V?

#  **Chapter 5** : **Weapon V**

“Where the _hell_ is everyone?” J. Jonah Jameson Jr. grumbled as he walked through the emptied Daily Bugle building, looking for someone to shout at. The fact that the fire alarm was ringing was totally irrelevant; like any good Conservative, he expects his employees to display that go-getter attitude by treating him like a king and working themselves to death while he cut their salaries down to less than the minimal wages under various pretenses. The fact that they would _dare_ to evacuate the building simply because there _might_ be a deadly fire is completely unconscionable to him, but he’s still one of the good Conservatives because he doesn’t openly demand that we hunt homeless people for sport... _yet_.

“Hello, Mr. Junior.” someone called out to him from behind him, and he turned. “At last, we meet.”

“ _You._ ” he gritted his teeth as he saw the figure framed by a cloak and top hat. “You killed my Father!”

“It was a mistake.” Weapon V came into the moonlight with that maddening smile. “One that I have came here to fix.”

“Oh yeah?” Junior snorted. “You gonna bring J. Jonah Jameson Sr. back to life?”

“I’m afraid you are quite mistaken. Allow me to elaborate:” Weapon V said as she took an arc reactor out of her cloak: “You have failed to learn from the lesson of your loss, so now I have came to finish the job.”

She engaged the reactor and threw it at Jameson’s direction. The world around them began to burn away as the reactor reached maximum output.

“You imbecile. You fucking moron.” Junior said with palpable fear in his eyes and voice as his skin melted off his face like the Nazis in _Raider_ _s_ _of the Lost Ark_ , a film he believes should be banned because killing Nazis is too political for entertainment. “You’re trapped here with me, you goddamn retard. You’ve killed us both. I hope you’re happy.”

“Oh, I am.” Weapon V said as she phased through the charring floor and escaped.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“Your Aunt Mei will make a full recovery.” the doctor, who was affiliated with the Brotherhood and privy to Mei’s former identity as a superhero, told Stacie and Miles. “But it’s important that she _never_ uses her powers again. She doesn’t look it beyond having graying hair, but her metabolism is that of an old woman. She simply _cannot_ risk pushing it any further; the next time she does so _w_ _ill_ be her last.”

They thanked Dr. Olivia Octavius before she left the room. Stacie leaned into Miles, whom caught her into an embrace. After a long and pleasant moment of silence and intimacy, she said: “Aren’t you gonna ask?”

“Ask what?” Miles said, puzzled.

“My deadname.” Stacie said quietly. “The one I had before Stacie.”

“Nah.” Miles shook his head. “You’ll always be Stacie to me. Unless you wanna be someone else. That’s cool with me too. Unless you don’t wanna be someone else, which is cool too. By that I mean -”

Stacie silence d him with a kiss on  the lips.

“Cutie.”

“No u.”

Then they kissed, as if nothing could fall.

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

Karen stood in front of a tombstone. A line of tear marred her face.

“She really meant something to you, didn’t she?” someone asked.

“She meant everything to me.” Karen answered. “She taught me how to fight, how to survive...she made me the woman I’m today.”

“What happened?”

“She tried to play the hero.” Karen wiped her face with a handkerchief. “Sacrificed herself to atone for mistakes of the past. Stupid bitch.”

“Sounds like someone I know.”

“I wish you could have met her.” Karen sighed. “You would have liked each other. Or maybe you’d try to kill each other. Hard to say.”

“Well, at the risk of sounding cold…” Carol smiled as she surrounded Karen’s waist with her arms. “I’m glad I can have you all to myself.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, woman.” Karen laughed, but then her expression darkened. “I can’t do it anymore, Carol. I love you, and I always will, but…”

“What if you don’t have to?” Carol asked. “I got a new job offer, from Stark, to be the new leader of his little band of Avengers. Want to go play superheroes?”

“Beats playing supervillains.” Karen unwrapped Carol’s arms and took her hands. “But don’t they already have a leader? Steve Rogers?”

“Word is the guy had gone off the deep end.” Carol said giving Karen a quick peck on the lips. “Ran and joined some Neo-Nazi group called Hydra.”

“I guess their loss is our gain.” Karen smiled but then something occurred to her: “We’ll need new codenames. I don’t think Stark would appreciate our...infamy.”

“Way ahead of ya.” Carol said with a grin. “I’ll be Warhawk. You?”

“...You really have a thing for the bird theme, huh?” Karen chuckled. “Very well, Warhawk. I’ll be your Hawkeye.”

They left the graveyard hand in hand, leaving behind the grave of one Elektra Natchios.

/╲/\╭( oOwOo) ╮/\╱\

“Reed Richards, you son of a - ” Dr. Yakumo Hachiko shouted as she came into the Baxter Building, only to find Reed laying dead on the surgical bed, his spine punctured multiple times by robotic arms. Besides the body she found an envelop, with a note and a syringe labeled “Mutagen-8” inside.

“Hachiko-chan,” the suicide note said, “I’m sorry for all the pain I’ve inflicted upon your daughter. I don’t know if she or you can ever forgive me, but I certainly can’t, not knowing what I have put Stacie though – what I have put your entire family through. Cindy showed me how powerless and heartbroken she felt when she saw Stacie suffer from the consequences of my action, which was only a fraction of Stacie’s pain, and it had haunted my nightmares ever since. Even though I’m an Atheist, I wished there was a Hell for me after Death, because that’s exactly where I belong. My jealousy of you, and other women scientists, had blinded me to my own flaws and made me a green-eyed monster who would do anything to succeed. I can make excuses for myself, saying that Kingpin took advantage of my moment of weakness, that I needed the money to keep my research going, or that I was just doing what I was told. I can make excuses, but I won’t. I made a decision, and it seemed like the right one at the time, but it wasn’t. In this envelop you will find my greatest creation yet: Mutagen-8, extracted from my own X-gene, able to grant anyone who injected it with my powers. Perhaps someone of your genius would be able to mass-produce it, but I highly doubt it, and I would caution against the wisdom of such action. I hope you will make good use of it; I think you will make for a far more superior Doctor Octopus than I ever was: a hero instead of a villain. Say sorry to Stacie for me. Love You Always, Reed Richards.”

“... _Bakayaro_.” Dr. Yakumo sobbed when she finished the note. “Tell her yourself, you fucking coward.”

She turned the note around and saw another line written on the back: “PS: What’s up with that Mutant arachnid specimen, ‘ Venom’ ? It’s returned to me since you never signed for it; it’s still in my lab.”

“What - “ Hachiko blinked, and then frowned. Was he talking about _that_ Venom? She went deeper into the lab and found an itsy-bitsy spider sealed inside a petri dish, which was indeed labeled “Venom”.

“What the - “

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

Mayor  Norman Osborn sat beside the bed of his son, inside the hospital. The Huntress didn’t finish the job; at least, not cleanly. Instead of finishing Harry Osborn off, she left him a drooling vegetable. 

“Oh, Harry, my boy…” Norman sighed as he turned the Goblin mask around in his hands. “I told you not to go around calling everyone retards. It’s not _polite_. And now look at you; less than a retard.”

A gas mask appeared behind him, then the leather apron. Sandman held out an open palm to demand what was rightfully their s to be returned, while their other hand held a knife, it s edge tinted with frost.

Norman held out his palm; inside it was a gemstone the size of a goose egg, blood red and ephemeral.  Sandman reached out to take the stone from Osborn, but he closed his palm and pulled his hand away.

“You failed at your task,” Norman said coldly. “And now you expect me to pay you for your _failure_?”

Sandman put the open  hand onto Harry’s head  instead , and held the knife against the unconscious boy’s throat.

“ _No!_ ” Norman growled. “Your incompetence disturbs me. Be gone at once, you useless freak show.”

Sandman was gone.

Norman sat back into the chair and read the news on his phone: Mayor Osborn apologized for the Fisk Scandal; claiming he’s unaware of the commissioner's actions. The terrorist Weapon V destroyed the Daily Bugle tower, but fortunately it was evacuated due to a false fire alarm, and only one person was killed. The Spider-Fam declared New York City an independent commune under their protection. That last one really  ticked  Norman off, and he stood up and loomed over his own son’s form on the bed.

“It’s always easier to apologize for incompetence than to ask forgiveness for malice.” Norman put his hands around his son’s neck and squeezed, until life went out of the poor boy’s eyes and air went out of the poor boy’s lungs. “You don’t just steal my city from under me. You don’t just steal from Kingpin.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

“What the - “ Captain Steve Rogers blinked when he saw the carnage in their safe house. He was still carrying the riot shield and armor, but now instead of the star-spangled American flag they were painted with swastika and other Nazi symbolism. They were still painted with the same blue, red, and white found on the American flag, though. “What happened to everyone!?”

They had been slaughtered. There were no other words for it. Each of their skulls had been caved in, sometimes crushed completely, as if they had been hit face-first with canon balls. Captain Rogers felt pain and anger swelled up in his chest as he inspected the bodies; he might still be a good man at his core, caring about the lives and well-beings of his fellow human beings just like when he pulled innocent civilians out of danger in Iraq. What that bastard Spencer did to his mind, though, made him convinced that anyone who isn’t a cishet white Conservative Christian isn’t, in fact, human beings.

“Yo, Nazi fuck!” a deep and thunderous voice came from behind him and Rogers turned. Standing there was a black man, strongly built and musular, with thick black mane of hair and beard all around his head. In one giant hand he held a recruitment pamphlet from Hydra, with the world tree and some Nordic runes on it to attract impressionable young gamers; in his other hand he held a hammer – not a warhammer or anything, just an ordinary hammer - which was somehow crackling with electricity.

“My parent literally paid an eye to get these runes for the enlightenment of mankind,” the black man said as he crumbled the pamphlet with in his hand and threw the hammer at Rogers, which caved the Captain’s head in just like it did with his fellow Nazis. “They don’t belong to you fascist cowards!”

In the absolute silence following the kill, a spider the size of a house cat scuttled toward the man.

“I’ll be damned; Thor Odinson, in the flesh.” Venom said. “Does your parent know you’re breaking the Oath of Eternals by interfering?”

“I might say the same about you, _compe Anansi_.“ Thor Odinson said with a broad grin. “Seems like you’ve been doing plenty of meddling yourself.”

“Yeah well,” Anansi waved their forelegs dismissively. “The times, they’re a-changing. Besides, I’m not human and never swore the Oath.”

“Technicalities; a trickster’s game indeed!” Thor laughed, a deep and hearty rumble. “Times a-changing alright; did you know the Endless Stones had resurfaced?”

“Yes I do.” Venom nodded, and the effect was...peculiar, to say the least, but Odinson seemed unfazed. “I think someone in this city has the Dream Stone.”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Thor nodded, his thick mane of hair and beard shaking. “I’m here to find it.”

/╲/\╭(oOwOo)╮/\╱\

The Spider-Fam had been busy dealing with the fallout  from the arc reactor. Being a green energy source turned into a clean weapon of mass destruction, it shouldn’t leave behind anything toxic or radioactive, but it  _did_ shatter into hundreds of smoldering ember that fell all over the city, hurting people who were out in the open, and sometimes even going through the windows or roofs and hit people indoors. There had been an uptick on the number of people who manifested Mutant powers, which some theorized  a s the result of  the a rc reactor not being as clean and green as Stark claimed. They never found Vulture’s body; secretly Stacie wished that Carol hadn’t died at all, but simply fell into the water of the Hudson so she could resurface later, like everyone who ever fell into  the  water in comics.

Stacie’s school life improved. Mary Jane Watson and her gang of butch lesbians volunteered to escort Stacie to the lady’s room and fend off any  transphobic bullshit anytime she needed it, and after a while and a few bashed skulls  latter  the  bullies just stopped trying even when MJ and her friends weren’t there. Both Takuya and Parvati came out in time, and being trans just wasn’t that much  of  a big deal anymore, especially for this group consisting of Stacie’s family and MJ’s friends, the latter of which included an intersex person.  Oh, and Matt got himself a boyfriend named Foggy.  Isn’t that sweet?

Today, the classroom was filled with anticipation, the student body buzzing with gossips and rumors. And who can blame them? A transfer student at this time of the year was like the plot out of an anime, but here we’re. As if consciously playing into that fact, the girl who’s walking into the room had a pair of cat ears on her head, a purple dragon plush toy on her shoulder, and an OwO expression on her face.

“Hewwo evewyone UwU.” no one was quite sure how they could hear the UwU in her voice but they did. “I’m a catgirl – and by that I mean a trans girl – and my name’s Kitty Pride! Nice to meet you all!”

I nside the bag of the self-proclaimed catgirl Kitty Pride, the pallid white mask just smiled  and asked:

Are You Weapon V?


End file.
